Monday, April 29, 2013

A Biking Buffet

Sunday, just eight days after running the Trail Mix 50K, I decided to try my hand at the MN Ironman Bike Tour held along the St. Croix River in eastern, MN. My recovery from Trail Mix had gone well, but any sort of training for the Bike tour had been cut short thanks to our belated spring. In fact I had only been out on my road bike twice in April, once for around 20 miles and then again for 16 in the week leading up to Sunday. Commuting 8-12 miles a day on a single speed bike is not the best training recipe for a tour that could have me out on the road for 100+ miles, but after biking around Kanabec County on Friday with my buddy Matt on our mountain bikes, I felt good enough to give it a shot so early Sunday I loaded up my bike and headed to the Washington County Fairgrounds. I have never done this event before and it was the first time it was being held in Washington County having moved from Lakeville this year, so they have some kinks to work out, namely parking and bathrooms.... Instead of a mass start the course opened at 630 and you could leave anytime between then and 930, I planned on being on the road by 730 but got stuck in a long line of cars waiting to get into the fairgrounds. Cars were coming from three different roads and the police were trying to funnel them through one door, not a good idea. While at a standstill on this road I looked at the MN Ironman's twitter account and saw people saying parking was a nightmare and good luck getting within 3 miles. I noticed people pulling off into a bank parking lot and parking there so I whipped a U-Turn and did the same, biking the 3 miles to the start where I checked in. The fairgrounds were total chaos so many people, so few port-a-potty's, I checked in and quickly headed out on the 53 mile loop, stopping just around the corner to use the bathroom at the Holiday station, only to be stuck in line there for 15 minutes (still much faster than waiting at the fairground) then finally I was off. The first hour was fantastic, cool temps, sun shining, blue sky, rolling country roads. Then we turned east and just got slammed by a crosswind, turns out the reason that first hour was so nice was a serious tailwind. For the next four hours or so I would battle that wind either head-on or as a crosswind, it never seemed to let up and mentally wore me down. Instead of putting together a full 100 mile loop or two 50-mile loops this course consisted of a 53 mile loop, a 27-mile loop, 29-mile loop and a 14-mile loop all wrapping around to the Fairgrounds. After completing the 53 mile loop (some fun patches up and down hills along beautiful country roads surrounded by trees and streams, and some not so fun stretches, massive hills going straight into the wind, actually saw a woman just tip over on her bike, falling into the grass on the shoulder. I stopped to see if she was okay and she just said 'I am tired...') I pulled into the fairgrounds which were packed with spandex clad bikers who were plowing through cinnamon rolls the size of my head. I sat down to eat a banana, the wind just hammering the table I was sitting at, and decided to head out on the 27-mile loop through Afton since I love that area. Heading out I battled the crosswind for a few miles then went head-on with the wind for the next hour. Down-hills weren't even fun at this point and the wind was so fierce you couldn't get much momentum. I decided to go with a Zen way of thinking 'The wind blows because it's wind, it's doing exactly what it's supposed to do' that is what I told myself until a huge gust slammed me in the face and I didn't care what it was just wanted it to give me a break. The aid stations along the course cracked me up, I pulled into one on this stretch and as you can see from the above photo it was like someone robbed a gas station, Honey Buns, Danish's, muffins, candy, Twizzlers, at this particular stop I was chatting with a fellow biker while watching another guy pull into the stop, reach into the pocket on the back of his lycra biking jersey and pull out a pack of smokes and go behind the gazebo...athletes. There were some fun hills on this section once we finally got the wind at our backs, and as I rolled into the fairgrounds again I decided that was enough for me. 80 miles on the day (plus biking to and from my car) and my longstanding hatred of the wind still intact. Up next the Snake River Canoe/Kayak adventure and then Isle Royale.

1 comment:

  1. I love cycling so much. When I was young, I was always ride my bicycle around our house.

    Zion Mountain Biking

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